Pioneers in Astronomy and Space Exploration

Pioneers in Astronomy and Space Exploration — page 5
PIONEERS IN ASTRONOMY AND SPACE EXPLORATION Many of the great thinkers of the time including Aristotle based their work on Eudoxus s model of the universe amending various parts as new information came to light This set the pattern for the advance ment of astronomy as a science with new theories building on those that came before Hipparchus and Ptolemy used the meth ods devised by Aristarchus of Samos in an attempt to figure out the size of the Moon and its distance from Earth Also influenced by Aristarchus was the father of modern astronomy Nicolaus Copernicus whose own theories were later championed by Galileo Tycho Brahe shared his data with Johannes Kepler who in turn greatly influenced Sir Isaac Newton Intrigued by the observations of astron omers and in some cases by science fiction stories as well physicists and engineers of the 20th century developed the technology that would allow for exploration in space The work of Robert H Goddard Wernher Von Braun and other rocket scientists led to spacecraft that would launch humans into orbit The earliest pioneers who rode those rockets into space came from the former Io